Danns.co.uk

So I'm in Chicago at the moment. For those that aren't aware, I live in Birmingham, in the West Midlands of the UK, so Chicago is a pretty big leap for me. It's my first time in the USA. To be honest, I've always felt a resistance to visiting the US. Everyone goes to the US. Especially anyone that has anything to do with Computers. I'd like to see Canada though, especially Quebec, as I speak French, and I've always wanted to visit Australia. In fact, we have plans to possibly move to Australia in a few years.

However, it's still pretty thrilling to be in Chicago. You see and hear an awful lot about these sorts of places on TV, and actually seeing it first-hard is weird and kind of cool. I haven't had the standing-at-the-foot-of-a-huge-skyscraper experience before. It's difficult to not fall over backwards when you look up, by the way. I forgot the USB cable for my camera, so my snaps won't be available until I get back home.

Things that stick out for me:

• Electric safety here is non-existant! Maybe I'm spoiled by the very strict safety regulations in the UK, but I feel like electrocution is always just around the corner. Sockets are spread around like USB ports --- at the base of lamps, stuck on the front of desks etc... Unisolated sockets in the bathroom surprised me as well. They are RCD-protected, but pressing the reset and test buttons requires almost inserting your finger into the socket, and pressing reset made a pretty impressive flash when I tried... Plugs hang loose out of sockets, and kids could easily get a shock by touching live pins. Oh, and it's far too easy to pull a plug out by tugging on the cable.
• Many cars use flashing red tail lights as indicators instead of dedicated yellow lights
• No roundabouts
• Cars can turn right at red lights --- pedestrians beware!

Anyway, I'm here for the eBay Developers Conference, as I do the Firefox Companion for eBay. I need to move on to the next session, so I'll cut myself short there.